Intel Z390 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Analyzed
by Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on October 8, 2018 10:53 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- EVGA
- Asus
- NZXT
- Supermicro
- Z390
MSI MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC
The MSI MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC is the smaller sibling to the ATX sized Gaming Edge AC model (mATX) and as a result, a smaller PCB means less slot space available. Like the bigger sized model, the main feature of the Gaming Edge AC range is Wi-Fi connectivity and this is provided by an Intel 9560 802.11ac 2T2R Wi-Fi adapter which is surprisingly higher spec than the one integrated (Intel 9462) onto the ATX variant.
In terms of PCIe support, the MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC has a total of two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots with the top slot having x16 bandwidth available and the second slot only having x8. This allows users to use both two-way SLI and CrossFire multi-GPU configurations. Also included on the board are two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Memory capability consists of four slots with up to DDR4-4500 and a maximum capacity of 64 GB. The board has two PCIe/SATA support M.2 slots present and has a total of four SATA ports; a direct consequence of the mATX form factor.
Just like the bigger ATX sized Gaming Edge AC model, this model benefits from a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec and Intel I219V Gigabit networking controller which handles the 8-channel audio and single LAN port on the rear panel respectively. In terms of USB, the rear panel contains a total of two USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type-A and Type-C) and four USB 3.0 Type-A ports. Users looking to use more devices can do so using the internal headers which offer a further four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports. The Z390M Gaming Edge AC is also suitable for users looking to make use of the 8th and 9th generation Intel processors with integrated iGPUs thanks to a pair of video outputs which consists of an HDMI and DisplayPort.
The MSI MPG Z390M has a suggest launch price of $180 and is primarily aimed at gamers looking to build a system with a smaller overall footprint of an ATX system. The inclusion of a 2T2R 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter and Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec means MSI has focused on providing higher-end features to their more mid-ranged offerings.
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di4b0liko - Tuesday, November 20, 2018 - link
Asus ROG STRIX Z390-F or asrock taichi ?pradeep.ramalingam - Friday, November 23, 2018 - link
Hi,I was wondering whether "MSI MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC" with processor "Intel i5-9600K" will it work with onboard graphics (Intel® UHD Graphics 630) without a GPU from nvidia/amd?
Tigrou - Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - link
"Z390 Motherboard Audio" panel in conclusion is incorrect. For example the MSI Z-390 A PRO has ALC892 but it is not in the list.Faslane - Wednesday, February 27, 2019 - link
Can you do a more in-depth overclocking guide for this board or is there one? if so may I please have a link to just a basic overclocking guide for this board? I have the board and loved it and I know I can go into the phantom gaming 4 app of course but I would rather do it at the BIOS level and save various profiles for testing but I'm a little new to some of the overclocking stuff but I do have a water cooled system with an 8th gen i5 9706 core so I know I can push it quite a bit :-)lb1966 - Thursday, April 11, 2019 - link
Just bought an IBuyPower with this MB init.Anybody able to hook it up to a home theater receiver?
7.1 sounds great on the headphones but I gotta take them off every once in while. Can I use the rear audio panel?
electricjedi - Thursday, January 9, 2020 - link
re: Asrock z390 gaming 4I know this does have a thunderbolt 5 pin header on the board, is this for thunderbolt 3?
Will the Asrock Thunderbolt 3 AIC R2.0 pci-e card work with this board?
or would I be smarter to get the GIGABYTE GC-ALPINE RIDGE (Rev 2.0) Thunderbolt3 Certified PCI-E Expansion card (since I know the z390 is "alpine ridge").
catminister - Saturday, November 28, 2020 - link
Also keep in mind that this board has no support for PCIe 4.0 or WIFI 6 802.11 AX in fact, it seems that Gigabyte abandons this board once purchased. If you want PCIe 4.0 to get the most out of the new Gen 4 NVMe M.2 drives or 802.11 AX support you are going to have to spend up and buy the X570 and a new CPU because socket 1151 is finished. A huge disappointment after recently upgrading to an Gigabyte Aorus Pro Wifi only this year...Turon - Saturday, December 25, 2021 - link
i can’t find the second ssd slot for the life of me, plz help.